How To Become A Humanities Professor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a humanities professor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Fabio Lanza

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a humanities professor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $42.61 an hour? That's $88,636 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 12% and produce 159,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a humanities professor?

Fabio Lanza

Professor, Ashford University

I tell them not to expect that they can achieve the same, old-style academic career (like mine, for example). A tenure-track job in a research university to be clear. Those jobs exist but they are becoming rarer and rarer. I also tell them that if they forecast incurring in serious (or even non-serious) debt in order to get a PhD, they should not do it. They should not pursue that path at all. In the program, they should take all the chances they have to learn new skills, including skills that don't seem directly related to an academic career.

ScoreHumanities ProfessorUS Average

Salary

6.9

Avg. Salary $88,636

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.28%

Asian 11.30%

Black or African American 7.10%

Hispanic or Latino 10.12%

Unknown 4.93%

White 66.28%

Gender

female 54.69%

male 45.31%

Age - 46

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 46

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.3

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a humanities professor

Explore humanities professor education requirements

Most common humanities professor degrees

Bachelor's

42.7 %

Master's

37.1 %

Doctorate

12.9 %

Start to develop specific humanities professor skills

Skills	Percentages
Blackboard	24.28%
Seminar	22.54%
Sociology	14.51%
Ethics	14.20%
Philosophy	12.71%

Research humanities professor duties and responsibilities

Lead outreach to community and statewide stakeholders in the PPCC entrepreneurship program.
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other blackboard require records.
Facilitate instruction for developing the thesis topic statement, qualitative and quantitative research design, and conducting a review of literature.
Create many Mathematica movies to help students understand important concepts in calculus.

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